Amy Adams & Jeremy Renner talk Arrival at London Film Festival

On Monday night Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner hit the red carpet for the BFI London Film Festival premiere of their sci-fi drama Arrival, which hits cinemas in November. On Tuesday, they came to the Corinthia Hotel for a quick press conference about the movie and here’s the highlights of what they said:

First off, this is the quickest press conference I have ever been to. It was all done within 18 minutes (my phone says so) and I had a distinct feeling of “is that it?” I could have listened to Adams talk for much longer. She had to walk down the aisle in between journalists to reach the table and she looked amazing and she honestly could have been strutting her stuff down a runway. She is also very articulate, kind and self-deprecating while Renner takes a while to get going and then he can’t stop talking. He has also struggles to understand the question often.

Here’s what I discovered:

Adams agreed to do the movie with Denis Villeneuve before he shot Sicario. They had a meeting and she told him she would do it but she had no idea how or when it would happen. Villeneuve was uncertain if he would do Arrival or Sicario first and when he went with Sicario Adams had to wait until it was time for Arrival

Renner came aboard the movie after seeing Sicario and because of his relationship with Adams, who he previously worked with on American Hustle

Renner kept praising Adams and even gave her a really sweet kiss on the top of her head. There’s a lot of love and respect there, which is nice

Adams loved that her character Louise was actually smart. She admits she’s read many scripts where a woman is described as smart but her actions don’t back that up, whereas Louise proves it with her capabilities

Adams found it freeing to play somebody so highly intelligent and without vanity. Louise cares about too many other things that she doesn’t give much thought to her looks and Adams loved that she could essentially roll out of bed and go to work

Knowing so far in advance the movie was going to happen, Adams spent a looong time preparing for the role in her own time, but she said the process was too detailed and extensive to get into

Renner plays mathematician Ian Donnelly and he didn’t think too much about the numbers and theories and honed in on how he would make him human, not just a stereotype of his profession

Renner really struggles to form answers which don’t spoil the ending – he had to stop himself a couple of times when he realised his answers were heading into spoiler territory

They both brought their kids on set – Adams doesn’t usually but because it was such a peaceful and calm working environment, they thought it would be cool

They knew what the aliens would look like thanks to concept art but in the actual shoot, they were acting against puppeteers, who were controlling a version of the seven-legged squid-like creatures

Adams knew she was getting into the right head space for Louise when she developed a stomachache that didn’t let up for the entire shoot

Arrival comes to cinemas in November. It is currently showing at the 60th BFI London Film Festival and you can read my review here.